We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Thursday, May 22. 2008

Furthermore, I think Scientology is a non-serious wierdo cult for unbalanced nuts, derived from lousy science fiction paperbacks and one which, I have heard, has a knack for emptying the bank accounts of vulnerable souls. Arrest me! In London, Teenager faces prosecution for calling Scientology a "cult." I'll bet he wishes he lived in the USA right now.

Well, it's a comfort to know that London's Bobbies are on the job, finding criminals and preventing crime.

Makes you appreciate living in a country with free speech, free thought, and "critical thinking," unlike Big Brother places like England and Canada. Our Revolution was not for nothing.

We believe in good, genteel manners, but we also believe in speaking out, and the very notion of manners enforced by law makes us feel unmannerly and defiant. (Maybe it's an "American thing.") It's a delicate balance, but we will offer no respect to people or things we judge undeserving of it. BS is BS.

On further reflection, the subtext of this story probably is that, if criticism of Scientology is permitted, then criticism of Jihadist Islam would have to be permitted too, and that might "offend" (ie they might riot) hypersensitive grievance-mongers. It's always open season on Christians, though. However, Christians can take it.

As you clever souls probably already know, L. Ron Hubbard, an only moderately successful science fiction writer back in the 1950s [yes, my preciouses, I was discovering and reading science fiction back then and I tried to read Hubbard, but he was dam boring and discursive so the book hit the wall] ... anyway, he wrote an extreeemely long and boring tome called Dianetics on which the con game Scientology is supposedly based. Apparently, folks like Tom Cruise, who is not noted either for his scholarship or his attention span, apparently soldiered through the book and fell for the scam.

Yes, indeedy, Scientology is a cult, as you say, Mr. Bird Dog. Now they can sue us both. I can play the I-am-old-and-gaga game, but you can't.

This cracked me up... " ...I tried to read Hubbard, but he was dam boring and discursive so the book hit the wall] ..." :) I made a vow in high school that if I started a book, I finished it. I regretted that vow many times but never broke it. That is until a few years ago when I started a book by a female author who writes a book a week. It came to me via a book exchange club at school. I made it through about ten pages and it hit the wall. Free at last, free at last. Since, a few more have hit the wall - all of them female, contemporary authors... Oprah's girls, I guess. Gotta say, I kinda like the Tome Toss and the resulting thud.

Bird Dog, don't forget to mention the Hari Krishna's, Moonie's, Mormon's, Jehovah"s Witness, Fundamental Baptist's, and my all time favorite Roman Catholic's. Why that be me!! Raised by crazy Irish women dressed in black and white habits with pointie sticks with a little rubber tip at the end . Good for wacking, no wonder this crazy Wop likes to yell and wack things.

Buddie and Meta, you both made sound legitimate, arguments for the taking of those kids in Texas, but I hate to tell you I told you so, but I told you so, the state of Texas is going to get the Hell sued out of them. Buddie I hope that crazy barber you know also does leagal work on the side, the state is going to need him.

jappy, i haven't been following the case -- tho it's happening just down the road a half hour. but the principle of state authority leaning forward to police possible child abuse is i think the only choice of several miserable options. Granted, no more of this:

I saw that. Too bad is all I have to say. I've read so much about the FLDS that I'm haunted by this mess. When I think about some 12 -14 year old girl being forced to have sex with an old guy, it makes me a little crazy.

search [ l ron hubbard amphetamines ] and get an eyeful of why Germany for example has banned the religion. Germans of course remembering a not-so-distant episode with a charismatic who combined speed-freak logic with self-pity and bitter, aggressive resentment.

A cult is a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.
Fundamentalist Baptists and RC don't appear to fit that definition. Here's a link to an old Penthouse interview with L Ron's son. He was later forced to disavow anything he said bad about Scientology as part of a large monetary court settlement with the Church of Scientology. So I assume what he said in the interview is true.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\Penthouse, Inside the Church of Scientology An Exclusive Interview with L Ron Hubbard Jr (AKA Ron DeWolfe).htm

Does anyone here remember in the 90's when a small group of "intelligent",wealthy, liberal "thinkers" were following some blonde chick with arab horses around on "retreats" (tax write off for the arab horse farm)? It was a big deal here: even the blonde from the long running night time tv soap was involved. Now, what were all these people doing? Why they were trying to prove rationally that a 5,000 year old philosopher/guru/whatever was speaking to them thorugh her. She would change her voice and cross her legs and "become" this 5,000 year old intelligence. This phenomenon/cult lasted about 3 years. The scary part is that some of these same people are now running the local universities and government agencies! Of course, at that time one of the "wonders" of this pheomenon was that a man was speaking through a woman--WOW!

Yes, I do remember that. Though can't think of her name or the name of the cult for the life of me. But did once drive past their compound somewhere there in Washington. I suppose I could google it but why bother.

All sorts of strange people populate every institution there is... it is a wonder that we have lasted as long as we have.

Just because it's a scam and totally preposterous in its interpretation of reality is no reason to thing that it won't one day become just as recognized as Mormonism, Islam and even Christianity, since it does, after all, rely on the same psychological mechanisms to make its point and to intimidate its membership as well as those who stand opposed to it. I would bet within 20 to 40 years we'll see a Scientologist run as a serious contender for national office, and he'll use the same rhetorical devices Mitt Romney did when questioned about religion...nice hair-do, great teeth, and hide behind Kennedy.

There are cultic offshoot groups from Judism as there are from all mainline religions. Their have been hundreds of Messiaic rabbi's claiming a cult following until their deaths. Death without ressurection is a bummer for the followers. The most recent being rebbe Schneerson of the Lubavitch Hasidim from Brooklyn in the 1990's. He caused a major split in the Lubavitchers. After having a stroke his followers carrier him off to Israel to fulfill prophecy. He died in Isreal. His grave is fenced off and I believe some of his followers are still waiting for him to rise from the dead.

You mean like this? The first two comments are from a blog that is responding to a news article published by Mr Geitlin in 2001 in the Los Angeles Times. Makes for interesting coming together of cult, politics, and monies intended for education:

I worked in the Monroe NY area during the 70's and 80's. Incorporated within Monroe is the Village of Kiras Joel, a Hasidic community. Most of these people left Brooklyn probably because of its violence and Al Sharpton. Its true that they vote whatever way their head rabbi tells them. The New Square group is the only Hasidic group that voted for Hillary, largely because of Clintons pardons for some in their group.
I do not consider most Hasidic groups a cult, but more in the vein of the Amish. The head Rabbi is more of a leader or priest than a cultic figure, except in the case of rabbe Schneerson. Because of centuries of persecution in eastern Europe they wisely keep to themselves. They also want to separate themselves from the evils of the world, which never works because that is the condition of a fallen human nature. People is people.
I use to enjoy working in their community on the Sabbath. They couldn't do any physical labor so I use to pick up a few bucks doing the mundane chores they couldn't do like flushing toilets. Five bucks to flush a toilet with a few logs in the bowl. It's a sh-tty job, but.....

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